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2/3/10

A new generation of Urban Beekeepers?

Yesterday I had the privilege of talking about Urban Beekeeping to about 150 12-to-13-year-old students at King Middle School in the Los Feliz/Silver Lake area.

I was invited by the folk at Farm Feliz, who created a beautiful organic vegetable garden & composting facility right in the middle of the campus, which the kids help plant and maintain. Bees seemed a perfect complement for the garden, so the volunteering opportunity presented itself.

The kids were unruly, somewhat defiant and very funny. Some of them had a genuine interest in the topic of bees, how to care for them, pollination, etc, and all of them went crazy about tasting honey in the comb and pollen. The highlight of the day was the demonstration of how to wear the veil and gloves, for which I had a long list of volunteers. We were also able to observe some bees at work on the broccoli in bloom.

As I was leaving one of the girls stopped me and said "Mr. Leonardo, I knew nothing about bees until today."

Earlier I got an e-mail from the science teacher, Miss Ralph: "Thanks so much for yesterday- I've quizzed my students today, and they really learned a lot!"